Grant Orders a Confederate Ship to be Held in Port

122.     [CIVIL WAR]. GRANT, Ulysses S[impson]. Retained copy of autograph letter signed to Brigadier General Shipley, City Point, Virginia, February 8, 1865, with contemporary note at top left “Sent.” Verso number “268” on verso. One page on laid paper, 8vo (24 x 18.2 cm), engraved stationery “Head Quarters Armies of the United States.” Creased where formerly folded, a few fox marks, affixed to mat with brown paper tape. Matted with a nineteenth-century engraved portrait of Grant (browned), framed, and glazed. Another print of Grant included with lot.

     The letter has good content warning of “Mr. Laws” who has been seeking authority to come through with a steamer he has at Norfolk loaded with goods “for the use of people in rebellion and expected to bring back cotton.” Grant tells the recipient to see that neither Mr. Laws nor his boat be allowed through. It is amusing that a Southern sympathizer would ask Grant for permission to sail with a boatload of goods for the Rebels.